The new Christmas movie from director Michael Showalter, Oh. What. Fun., tempts the audience to roll their eyes almost immediately, laying on the theme that being a mother at Christmas is a thankless task thick. But as the first act progresses, it becomes clear that a simple “thank you” or “can I help” from her family isn’t enough: Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer) should be given a gun.
Since it’s the holiday season, can the terminally online please inform their luddite (affectionate) family members that I am referencing a meme, and am not actually advocating for violence? I am simply impressed by how effectively the Prime Video ensemble comedy presents Christmas as a pressure cooker that brings all of the every day motherhood stresses to a head because, in preparing for the holiday, they multiply. Plus, as she notes in the film’s first few minutes, holiday movies love to center a man’s emotional growth and take the women in the picture for granted.
‘Oh. What. Fun.’ is about a woman on the verge at Christmas.
Claire’s three adult children come home for Christmas, as they do every year. Her eldest doesn’t offer to help. Her youngest whine when dinner isn’t ready. They’ve ignore emails, and texts about emails (such a mom thing) hinting at the one thing she really wants. They take little joy in holiday traditions. Claire’s husband Nick, played by Denis Leary, gives an ill-advised toast. When the family pulls a McCallister the next day, and drives off to a Christmas concert without her, Claire packs a bag and decides to spend Christmas on her own. It’s up to her family to figure out what to do about her and each other next.
By the time she gets left home alone, I was 100 percent on her side-even though some of the comments she made to her kids, especially Channing (Felicity Jones), were the teensiest bit triggering to me as the daughter of a mother. Still, Claire more than earned her outburst. She was right to leave her family to their own devices. Like I said, she could have been a little meaner, actually!
The central family in ‘Oh. What. Fun’ will keep you on your toes.
Pfeiffer and her Texas drawl are easily the stars of the show. The best relationship in the ensemble belongs to Jason Schwartzmann’s brother-in-law Doug and chaotic middle child Taylor, played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Doug, an only child, tries way too hard to get Taylor to like him. He desperately wants to fit in with a family dynamic he has no way to understand. It’s endearing until it gets very real. As the youngest sibling Sammy, Dominic Sessa is essentially playing a grounded version of Showalter’s own Wet Hot American Summer character, Coop. Sammy’s even a camp counselor! But he happens to be very good at it. Between this movie and The Holdovers continues to win Christmas. He’s like a Gen Z Scrooge.
Jones’ Channing either has Taylor Swift’s eldest daughter at the top of her Spotify Wrapped or posted a laundry list of complaints about it on Threads. She’s as sympathetic in her plight as Claire despite her very clear awkward missteps. She has two young kids, and her mom doesn’t truly see her as an adult or appreciate her either. Her legitimate concerns aren’t left behind. A lesser movie would paint her and/or her dad as the villain. In this, they’re the first to realize that they messed up. Even though the whole family takes Claire for granted in ways that explain why she cracks when she cracks, they’re all still fully-developed, engaging, holly jolly characters. Nobody does exactly what you expect. Oh, what fun!
The supporting characters pop outside of the family as well.
There are little moments sprinkled throughout that make even the quiet scenes that much more human. This extends to the supporting characters and cameos, of which there are plenty. Devery Jacobs is perhaps a tad underused as Taylor’s girlfriend-of-the-year Donna a.k.a. Sweet Pea a.k.a. DJ Sweatpants, but easily shoulders the task of playing outsider to a dysfunctional family. Maude Apatow gets some good quips in as Sammy’s ex-girlfriend Mae-bell.
Havana Rose Liu is a realistic take on the hometown crush, Lizzie Wang-Wasserman. She has the killer dance moves and spontaneity of a manic-pixie dream girl. However, she also reveals some of the cracks in the picture-perfect family next door. The Wang-Wasserman clan are the deuter-antagonists of the story, if only in Claire’s mind. But they’re not totally innocent. The matriarch Jeanne Wang-Wasserman, played by scene-stealer Joan Chen, was clearly born in the land of Passive Aggressiva.
Finally, Eva Longoria plays the daytime host and chef Claire idolizes named “Zazzy Tims.” She understood the assignment perfectly and gets away with some of the best comedic moments. Danielle Brooks’ character Morgan, a delivery driver named Rose, makes a compelling case for solitude during the holidays in just a few scenes.
Few understand comedy genre tropes better than Showalter.
After deconstructing them in films like The Baxter, They Came Together, and Wet Hot American Summer, he just started doing the thing himself. Films like The Big Sick, The Lovebirds, and most recently The Idea Of You, all directed and the latter also co-written by Showalter, have been quietly keeping the romcom alive. (Showalter has a Colleen Hoover adaptation starring Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway on deck, so… buckle up.) What he hasn’t done yet is a Christmas movie. Enter Oh. What. Fun.
That’s where it comes in handy to have both someone as well-versed in genre as Showalter at the helm and a woman co-writer in screenwriter, author, and essayist Chandler Baker. She also wrote the story the movie is based on. They don’t compromise for convention. This isn’t like Love Actually, to throw the controversial Christmas film under the bus for the sake of argument. You don’t have to accept dated gender stereotypes and a certain level of holiday-induced psychosis in every character to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the movie. There’s a scene towards the end of the film, where Claire really gets to vent with other like-minded women, that was so clearly written by a woman. It felt like borrowing a hair tie from a stranger in a bathroom line.
We’re in safe hands with Oh. What. Fun. A mother like Claire wouldn’t have it any other way… so everyone say THANK YOU, CLAIRE!
(featured image: Prime Video)
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